IT must be hard to say goodbye to a £1 billion movie franchise. So news that Lionsgate Films was going to split the final book in Suzanne Collins’ hit teen trilogy into two money-spinning movies was hardly a bombshell.

But after the dull penultimate episodes of Harry Potter and Twilight, the quietly absorbing Mockingjay – Part 1 was a pleasant surprise. It may have been an extended drum roll for the finalé but it cleverly developed Collins’ themes.

Traumatised teenager Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) had greatness foisted upon her in two of the Hunger Games’ televised death matches. Here she became the reluctant figurehead in a civil war that pitted the stormtroopers of the evil dictator President Snow (Donald Sutherland) against the vaguely communist troops of the manipulative Alma Coin (Julianne Moore).

It left us desperate to see Snow’s comeuppance but fearful of Coin’s scheming. The Hunger Games had caught fire again. Sadly, it feels like director Francis Lawrence is raking over the embers in this disappointing finale.

It’s not a bad film but it is surprisingly flat. Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence still cuts a commanding figure as the steely but sensitive Katniss but what screenwriters would call her “character arc” played itself out in Part 1.

What we are left with is a proficient but largely forgettable action flick. The final push into the Capitol is taking shape and Coin is prepared to use any means necessary to secure a quick victory.

But with the end in sight, Katniss is beginning to feel like her rival as well as her ally. Instead of leading the final charge, the folk heroine and a small squad of photogenic soldiers will be filmed miles away from the suburbs.

Katniss, though, isn’t content with being a propaganda tool. She’ll play along until she gets a chance to make a run at Snow herself. But the whiskered despot has an ace up his sleeve - he’s rigged the streets with deathtraps left over from his televised battles.

Lionsgate

GAME GIRL: Katniss and her team reach The Capitol

“It feels like director Francis Lawrence is raking over the embers in this disappointing finale.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 76th Hunger Games,” says squad member and former champion Finnick (Sam Claflin).

While the spectacular boobytraps made sense in the arena, they seem pointlessly elaborate in a civil war.

Challenges include a spectacular but easily escapable tsunami of oil and a pack of eyeless monsters in the city sewers. In both case a simple bomb would have been a lot more effective.

The pacing feels a bit off, too. Katniss spends a long time picking her way through the outskirts of the city before suddenly appearing for a rushed showdown at the presidential palace.

As one of her love interests puts himself out of the running early on, the love triangle between brainwashed baker Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and hunky hunter Gale (Liam Hemsworth) fails to take fire either.

Perhaps this isn’t the film-makers’ fault. The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played scheming Plutarch Heavensbee, midway though the shoot must have forced a very hurried rewrite.

He bows out here in a curiously framed shot that looks like it was culled from an out-take. He deserved a more fitting finale to his sparkling career. Hollywood’s smartest young adult franchise deserved a bit more too.